2877 . ^ 

I' 

''^ ^ LB 2L^ 11 



AN ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THR 



TRUSTEES, FACULTY, AND STUDENTS, 



OP 



aa iFafiettt CoUegr, 3Basto«, JJa. 

BY WILLIAM RAWLE. 



AN ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



TRUSTEES, FACULTY, AND STUDENTS, 



OF 



LA FAYETTE COLLEGE, EASTON, PA. 

AT ITS FIRST COMMENCEMENT FOR CONFERRING DEGREES, 
On the 32d of September, 1836. 



BY WILLIAM RAWLE. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
JOSEPH AND WILLIAM KITE, PRINTERS, 

SEVENTH AND CARPENTER STREETS. 

1836. 



«l 



Easton, September 23, 1836. 

Dear Sir, 

The Trustees of La Fayette College respectfully request you 
to furnish for publication, a copy of the able and eloquent Address 
which you yesterday delivered before the Trustees, Faculty, and 
Students of the institution. 

I am, most respectfully, 
Yours, 

J. M. PORTER, President 
William Rawle, Esq. 



Philadelphia, September 28, 1836. 

Dear Sir, 

The request of the Trustees of La Fayette College conveyed 
through you, of a copy of the Address delivered by me on the 22d 
instant, before the Trustees, Faculty, and Students of that institu- 
tion, is too flattering not to be at once acceded to. The Address is 
entirely at their disposal. 

I am, very respectfully and truly. 
Yours, 

WILLIAM RAWLE. 
James M. Porter, Esq. 



ADDRESS. 



The revolution of time has brought round a period, which 
will ever be marked in the history of this institution. It now 
first dawns upon the world, giving a flattering promise of 
what its day shall bring forth. Hitherto, all has been prepa- 
ration — active, laborious, and anxious — sometimes almost pa- 
ralyzed by difiiculties, which seemed to baffle effort ; — some- 
times, cheered and invigorated by the prospect of success — 
always struggling with obstacles which nothing but energy 
and perseverance could overcome. But the events of this day 
add another page to the records of all times and of all coun- 
tries to prove, that under the benign influence of that Provi- 
dence which favours and fosters every thing that deserves to 
succeed, energy and perseverance, prompted by virtuous mo- 
tives and directed to virtuous ends, hke Faith can remove 
mountains. 

It is now more than ten years, since a few patriotic and 
public spirited men of this immediate neighbourhood, deeply 
sensible of the vital importance of diffusing the lights of edu- 
cation through our rapidly growing community, and of the 
vast disproportion between the wants and the means of men- 
tal culture ; measuring their eflforts rather by the magnitude 
and importance of their undertaking, than by their immediate 
resources to carry it into successful operation, but resting 
their hope on the support of an enlightened and liberal com- 
munity, laid the foundations of an institution, whose honours 
are now for the first time to be conferred. 

The seed was then planted — the fruit is now to be plucked. 
The soil which received that seed, was favourable to its 



( 6 ) 

growth ; but chilling frosts, and the want of refreshing show- 
ers, for a time prevented its expansion — it was long before 
the germ burst forth and showed its tender shoots above the 
ground; but, at length, warmed by the life-giving beams of 
the sun, and nourished by the balmy breath of a genial atmo- 
sphere, it yields its first fruits to reward the toils of the hus- 
bandman. Those fruits, fair, beautiful, and delicious, are but 
assurances of the more abundant harvest, which each suc- 
cessive year shall produce. 

The original design of this institution, differed materially 
from that which was afterwards adopted. The number of 
valuable and accompHshed men with whom the great national 
establishment at West Point had adorned the ranks of civil, 
of scientific, and of military life, as well as the pre-eminent 
success which had attended some more private institutions, 
upon which a military character had been impressed, induced 
in the founders of La Fayette College the wish, to blend with 
the study of the arts of war, the peaceful pursuits of science 
and literature. 

The charter, therefore, from which, on the 9th of March, 
1826, it derived its existence, provided, that in addition to 
those branches of education which are usually taught in our 
higher seminaries of learning, the students should be instructed 
in military science, tactics, and engineering. The plan, how- 
ever, did not succeed. Whether an opinion had gone abroad 
that the country was already sufficiently provided with military 
schools, or the tranquil shades in which this temple was to be 
reared, were unfit scenes of preparation for " war, the son 
of hell, whom angry heavens do make their minister," or 
whether, in connexion with other causes, the want of that 
aliment which public patronage alone can bestow, prevented 
its early and healthy growth, the languishing and sickly infant 
had nearly closed its brief and useless existence, when an event 
occurred which brought it into renovated and active life. 

An academy in which the mechanic arts and agricultural 
labour were united with intellectual improvement, had for 



( 7 ) 

some time been established in the populous village of Ger^ 
mantown, within a few miles of the metropoKs of the state* 
From causes, however, entirely unconnected with its essential 
character and peculiar objects, its success had not correspond- 
ed with the hopes of those by whom it was founded. It was 
sinking under a disease, incident, perhaps, in a great degree, 
to its situation ; and it was deemed essential to translate it to 
another and more congenial spot, in order to preserve it from 
an early grave. The famihar, but beautiful figure was here 
strikingly illustrated, that the darkest passages of life, frequent- 
ly usher in its most briUiant periods, as the deepest gloom of 
night is said to be the harbinger of the dawn of day. At a mo- 
ment of cheerless despondency, when the struggle seemed to 
be nearly over, and their last sigh about to be drawn, an union 
of these institutions called into existence, one which was des- 
tined to effect, what their separate efforts could not accom- 
plish. By a happy arrangement, the trustees of La Fayette 
College were enabled, not only to secure the services of the 
accomphshed and able head of the manual labour academy, 
but to transfer the whole institution to a position admirably 
fitted for the development of its principles; and to enable 
them more completely to give effect to those principles, a 
supplement to their charter, granted on the 27th of April, 
1832, authorized them " to dispense with the maintenance and 
observance of military discipline, and with the teaching of 
military science and tactics, and civil and military engineer- 
ing." The character of the institution being thus changed ; 
the sword being, in a manner, turned into the ploughshare, 
and the spear into the pruning hook, the happiest results soon 
followed. Although confined within the narrow limits of a 
small spot of ground ; with buildings ill calculated for those 
operations which this system of education required ; without 
many of the necessary implements of labour, and with re- 
sources wholly inadequate to supply these deficiencies, the 
advantages, nevertheless, of the system, were soon discovered 
in the increased number of students it attracted, and the high 



( 8 ) 

degree of physical, moral, and intellectual improvement, to 
which they attained. From that period, although many seri- 
ous obstacles have beset its path, the institution has advanced 
with a steady and accelerated step, in a career of usefulness 
and reputation. Emboldened by the success which had thus 
attended their efforts, its friends felt themselves justified in 
enlarging its boundaries and extending its sphere of action. 
The little farm which had been the scene of its infant labours, 
was too confined for its enlarged growth and increasing 
strength. It required more room for the exertion of its ac- 
tivity and the development of its powers; and for the purpose 
of giving the fullest scope to an experiment, which, if fairly 
made, they knew could not fail, the Trustees determined to 
give to the institution all the advantages resulting from a per- 
manent establishment, by the purchase of appropriate grounds 
and the erection of suitable buildings. The undertaking was 
a bold one, but the event has justified the enterprise. Assisted, 
less by the liberal contributions which a few devoted friends of 
education bestowed, and the support derived from legislative 
bounty, than by the favourable impression which merited suc- 
cess had made upon the pubfic mind, they have raised these 
sacred halls, amid scenes, whose enchanting loveliness, the 
divine pencil of a Claude alone could portray. If it be true, 
that the mind receives its impressions from external objects, 
and the emotions of the soul participate in the character of 
the scenes by which it is surrounded, these lofty and majes- 
tic mountains, bathing their rugged heads in the floating 
clouds ; these fertile and beautiful valleys, stretching beyond 
the reach of human vision, loaded with the rich products of 
agricultural labour, and presenting the captivating picture 
of industry and happiness; these broad and silvery streams, 
bursting through abrupt precipices, or gliding between peace- 
ful shores, and bearing on their bosoms incalculable wealth, 
must drive from the ingenuous minds of youth all selfish and 
ignoble thoughts, and give to them that elevation of soul, those 
" immortal longings" which best qualify them to fill the ex- 



( 9 ) 

aked character which belongs to a patriotic citizen of this 
great Republic. 

By a judicious and well arranged union of the arts of in- 
dustry, with scientific and literary studies in their various de- 
partments, La Fayette College now offers to the rising gene- 
ration as extensive a field for intellectual improvement, as any 
of her sister institutions, while the healthful pursuits of mecha- 
nical and agricultural labour, preserve the youthful constitu- 
tion from the wasting effects of mental exertion, and at the 
same time give to the mind that strength and independence, 
which always result from the proud consciousness of self- 
support. Among those sister institutions she now takes her 
stand, and this day sends forth into the world, her first off- 
spring, to play their part in the great drama of life. 

Let us pause for a moment at the threshold, and carry our 
minds forward to the scenes in which they are about to min- 
gle. In a few years passed in preparation for the several pur- 
suits for which they are destined, those who are now bidding 
adieu to the shades of the academy, *' templa quam delectttf'* 
will be launched on the broad ocean of the world ; and whe- 
ther they shall enter it from the work-shop of the mechanic, 
the laborious fields of agriculture, the counting-house of the 
merchant, the lecture room of the physician, the office of the 
lawyer, or the study of the divine, unless the lessons they have 
learned here, have been inculcated in vain, the same star will 
be their guide over its tempestuous and dangerous waters. 
However various their condition in life, and however diversi- 
fied their private tastes, pursuits, duties, and responsibilities, 
all are bound alike to their country, and all have a right to 
claim a participation in its concerns. It is the peculiar bless- 
ing of this favoured land, that there is no hereditary claim to 
distinction; no exclusion by birth from its highest stations. 
He who would enjoy the honours of his ancestors, must in- 
herit their virtues as well as their name. 

" He cannot borrow merit from the dead, 
Himself an undeserver." — Rowe. 
2 



{ 10 ) 

In other countries, the avenues to success are nearly closed, 
except to those who can present a passport, purchased by any 
other merit than their own; but here, the broad highway is 
open to all — all may press forward in the race, but he only 
can hope to reach the goal, who relies on his own strength 
and his own exertions to carry him through* 

The sentiment of patriotism belongs almost exclusively to 
a republic. There seems to be an instinctive feehng in the 
human breast, which every where breaks throuo^h the selfish 
barriers by which it is encompassed, and seeks an abiding 
place in something connected with country. Where the mo- 
narch is the fountain of honour, and the centre of power, he 
is too often substituted for the country over which he sways 
his sceptre; and loyalty usurps the place of a nobler feeling. 
How many examples does history record, of self-devotion to 
a sovereign, whose only claim to the sacrifice was, that he 
was the acknowledged head and representative of his people. 
The soul that could rouse itself to heroism for a king, would 
become god-like in the cause of country. The history of the 
civilized world proves, that it is only where the spirit of man 
is free, and acknowledges no master but the laws whose pro- 
tection he enjoys, that public virtue finds room for its highest 
eflforts. Such has been the experience of antiquity, which, 
until our own great experiment was made, furnished all we 
knew of republics. And if the little states of Greece, with 
their petty interests and limited powers, could inspire with 
this sacred feeling, Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Cimon, Phocion, 
Themistocles, and all that band of heroes and patriots whose 
lives form the brightest pages in the annals of their country; 
and the impure repubfican institutions of Rome, encumbered 
by the splendor of consular and senatorial dignity, and op- 
pressed by the weight of patrician power, could call into ac- 
tion the exalted virtues and heroic devotion of a Camillus, 
a Scipio, and a Cato, how much more elevated are the mo- 
tives, how much more noble the objects, presented to the mind 
of a citizen of these United States. 



( 11 ) 

Ours is the only age, and ours the only country, in which 
the rights of man have been made the original basis of go- 
vernment. The birth of most other nations, is lost in the mists 
of antiquity, and their history fabulous or real, is illustrated 
or disgraced by the barbarous virtues or disgusting vices of 
heroes or tyrants. If, from time to time, a ray of light has 
shot through the gloom, it has burst from the splendor of some 
individual character, v^hich the goodness of God has permit- 
ted to shine upon a benighted w^orld, as if to teach mankind 
of M^hat it is capable. But w^hen the star has sunk beneath 
the horizon, it has either left the sphere it illuminated in ori- 
ginal darkness, or its path has been marked by a glimmering 
line of light, to point the wslj to future improvement. Such 
was the Anglo-Saxon Alfred, and such his glorious reign. 

During those periods of ignorance and error, what have 
been called struggles for liberty, have too frequently been 
mere contests for power, between an encroaching monarch 
and his bold and haughty nobles. In struggles like these, 
however bitter the hostility, and however opposed the interests 
of the contending parties, they have usually united in the sen- 
timent of utter contempt for the rights of the people. Even 
Magna Charta, to which our English ancestors proudly turn 
as the bulwark of their freedom, was extorted, sword in hand, 
from the profligate and cowardly John, by the mail-clad con- 
federates of Robert Fitzwalter ; and if, among its numerous 
provisions for the support of aristocratic supremacy and ba- 
ronial pride, a few are found for the protection of those for 
whose benefit and by whose hand all governments should be 
framed, they only serve to show how debased was the situa- 
tion of those who could humbly and gratefully receive as a 
boon, infinitely less than they were entitled to demand as a 
right. Those privileges are little to be boasted of, which are 
the gratuitous bounties of uncontrollable superiors. But, al- 
though the principle of popular freedom was the smallest of 
all the elements which entered into the composition of the 
charter of Runnemede, it was destined to produce the most 



( 12 ) 

important results. It was no larger than a grain of mustard- 
seed, " the least of all seeds," " but, when it was grown, it 
became a tree," under whose spreading branches and protect- 
ing shades the liberties of England securely reposed. 

The boundary line of rational freedom lies within the circle 
of useful knowledge, and as the one expands the other is en- 
larged. As, therefore, the light of intellectual improvement 
from time to time has dispersed the clouds of ignorance, and 
revealed to man his true dignity and real power, the barbarous 
institutions and still more barbarous opinions by which he was 
held in subjection, have been compelled to give way before 
the advance of reason. He was oppressed and humbled, be- 
cause he knew not what he was; and the lessons which taught 
him to know and feel his rights, taught him at the same time 
how to assert them. These rights had gradually gathered 
weight and force and permanence, at the period when the 
western world afforded to the oppressed an asylum, and to 
the bold and enterprising a field for the exercise of their ac- 
tive energies ; and if the spirit of freedom had any room to 
breathe in the artificial atmosphere of Europe, where the lux- 
uries of life and the arts of man and his arbitrary and unequal 
institutions poisoned its purity and circumscribed its exercise, 
how much more freely would its aspirations be poured forth, 
where nature, unfettered and uncontrolled, exhibited her 
grandest and most imposing features. The glare of wealth 
and the pomp of power create servility in the mean, and dis- 
pondency and discontent in the generous ; but the sublimities 
of nature exalt and purify the soul. He who can contemplate 
the grandeur spread over the face of this magnificent coun- 
try, without feeling his mind raised to the adoration of the 
Author of all Good, and his bosom swell with the ennobhng 
feelings of conscious freedom, belongs to a class of beings 
unworthy of the land they inhabit. 

Driven by such causes, or invited by such motives to scenes 
like these, the spirit and the principles of those who sought 
these shores as a resting place, would naturally strike their 



( 13 ) 

roots deeply into a soil so admirably calculated to promote 
their growth. It afforded, therefore, no very strong proof of 
the political wisdom of their trans-atlantic parent not to have 
foreseen that tyranny and oppression, instead of subduing the 
spirit of the slave, would rouse into action the slumbering 
energies of the free, and sever the bonds of colonial depend- 
ence. She chose not, however, the wiser part of conciliation 
and kindness, but arrogantly and causelessly precipitated a 
crisis, which sooner or later must have arrived, and forced 
before the world the extraordinary and interesting spectacle 
of a number of remote and feeble provinces, with a scanty 
population spread over an immense extent of territory, with- 
out name and without wealth, and without those political ties 
which could give the force of union to their efforts, but bound 
together by a sense of common wrongs, and sustained by the 
influence of a common spirit, bursting at once into the great 
assembly of nations and claiming among them an equal sta- 
tion. Like the fabled goddess of wisdom and of war, who 
issued mature in form and armed for battle from her parent's 
head, there was here no puhng infancy, no half-formed incon- 
siderate youth: the creation was the production of mighty 
and irresistible principles, and the impress of early manhood 
was stamped upon it at its birth. 

At the commencement of our national existence, all that 
was good in civil and social relations — all that was valuable 
in the treasures of science — all that deserved imitation in the 
political institutions and legal systems of past ages and dis- 
tant countries was spread before us, and from materials so 
rich and so abundant, a fabric has been raised, founded on the 
immutable, but almost forgotten principles of the rights of 
man. The same celestial spirit, and some of the same illus- 
trious men who dared to proclaim to the astonished world, 
" that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to 
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, 



( 14 ) 

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," 
have framed a constitution embracing and securing every thing 
which the wants and the happiness of a free people could re- 
qiure ; and if, under the protection of the roof they have reared, 
man cannot be secure in the enjoyment of equal " justice, do- 
mestic tranquillity, general welfare, and the blessings of liber- 
ty," the human race has nothing left to hope for. How far the 
anticipations of those have been realized who threw themselves 
into the breach and *' devoted their lives, their fortunes, and 
their sacred honour" to the welfare of their country, the un- 
paralleled prosperity and happiness of these United States, since 
the termination of their revolutionary struggle, abundantly 
declare. To sketch, even with the most hurried pencil, the 
leading features of this important period, filled as it has been 
with events of the most thrilling interest, and crowded with the 
most distinguished men, would far exceed the limits of my 
-canvass, and call for colours I am unable to command. None 
but a master's hand could paint the picture. 

Let us then turn from the beautiful and cheering retrospect 
of past events, to a momentary contemplation of our present 
condition, and cast an anxious eye towards our future fate. 
The position which our beloved country now occupies, is one 
of unparalleled interest, not only to those who live under the 
protection of her laws, but to the whole civilized world. Be- 
fore the watchful eye of that jealous world, she is now suc- 
cessfully working out a great moral and political problem, in 
the solution of which all mankind are concerned. If, from 
unrestrained passions, wild and selfish ambition, sordid cupi- 
dity, or the mad rancour of party spirit, it be now decided 
that man is incapable of living under laws of his own crea- 
tion, and that nothing but the hard hand of power can restrain 
him, the hopes of the philanthropic statesman are lost forever ; 
for never can the great experiment be made again under cir- 
cumstances so auspicious. Thus far, its success has outrun 
the fondest anticipations of its most enthusiastic advocates. 
Within the compass of sixty years from the moment when 



( 15 ) 

this mighty nation announced its determination to be inde- 
pendent, the number of ill-cemented and disjointed states 
which then struggled for existence has been exactly doubled ; 
and, joined together by the most sacred bond which the wis- 
dom of man ever framed, are in the full fruition of unexam- 
pled prosperity* The three millions of inhabitants who then 
thinly skirted our Atlantic shores, are now swelled to more 
than five times that amount ; and the broad tide of population 
is poured over the wide and distant regions of the west. The 
rude shocks of foreign aggression have been triumphantly 
repelled, and the national character placed on a proud eleva- 
tion ; the flowers of literature have been successfully cultiva- 
ted within our borders ; science has shed her radiant light 
over our land, and all those useful arts which are directly tribu- 
tary to the well-being and comfort of man, have received an 
impulse here, more powerful than in any other portion of the 
globe. In an age in which more improvements in science 
and the arts have been compressed within the circle of a few 
years than the continued efforts of preceding centuries could 
accomplish, the active, intelligent, and enterprising people of 
this flourishing country may claim to have done their part. 
And while they can repose in safety in the enjoyment of une- 
qualled prosperity and happiness, under the protection of the 
best constituted government the world has ever known, they 
freely yield to others an unenvied pre-eminence in those splen- 
did luxuries and refined embelKshments which the accumula- 
tions of aristocratic wealth alone can support. 

But if the mind of the philanthropist and the patriot dwell 
with delight on the beautiful picture of the present, it is lost 
in enraptured reveries in contemplating what the future may 
unfold. In every part of Europe the spirit of freedom is 
abroad, and though often beaten down by the hand of despotic 
power, or smothered under the oppressive weight of privi- 
leged orders, the vital spark can never be extinguished. 
France, after rushing from the fierce tumults and bloody 
scenes of popular phrensy into the iron grasp of imperial 



( 16 ) 

despotism, is endeavouring to infuse the spirit of freedom into 
the remodelled institutions of her ancient monarchy. The 
venerable and time-honoured edifice of the English constitu- 
tion shakes v^ith the convulsive throes of the same impatient 
spirit, seeking to burst its shackles and assert its claim to a 
voice potential in the councils of the nation. In Germany, 
many despotic princes have been forced by the resistless 
povi^er of public opinion, to acknov^ledge the rights of their 
people ; v^^hile, in her numerous universities, the flame is fan- 
ned by the breath of young enthusiasts. And even those icy 
regions where the energies of man are frozen under the be- 
numbing tyranny of a more icy-hearted autocrat, must, soon- 
er or later, feel the genial warmth of the sun-beams of liberty. 
The very means to which the unfeeling Nicholas, and the 
brutal CoNSTANTiNE resort to crush the spirit of the unhappy 
Pole, may send that spirit with the heroic exile into the re- 
motest corner of their empire, and kindle a fire which cannot 
be extinguished. 

But whatever may be the hopes or the fears of those who 
struggle in the cause of European freedom, their eye is stea- 
dily and anxiously fixed on the western world as an example 
or an asylum. If the progress of liberal opinions should un- 
dermine the gothic remains of kings and nobles, and open to 
their view a country in which captivity may be free, they 
look to our institutions as the pillar of light which is to guide 
them to the promised land ; but if the overwhelming waves of 
power should threaten to ingulf their dearest hopes, here is 
the Ararat on which they trust the ark of their political 
safety may rest. Whether the hopes of mankind are to ride 
securely in our waters or to be wrecked on the very shores 
they have sought in their distress, may mainly depend on the 
events of a few short years, and the principles by which they are 
directed or controlled. It is hardly too bold an assertion to 
pronounce, that the present generation hold in their hands the 
destinies of their country, and they are now to determine 
whether they shall be for weal or for wo. With a territory of 






( 17 ) 

two millions and an half of square miles, embracing every 
variety of soil and climate, this vast country is capable of 
supporting a population of five hundred millions of human be- 
ings ; not Hke the ignorant and brutal boors of despotic Rus- 
sia, or the heathen hordes of besotted China, but a free, 
intelligent and active race, capable of carrying all the im- 
provements of science, and all the arts of Hfe into every part 
of this mighty continent, and of spreading the light of the 
Gospel of truth to its remotest borders. A population, whose 
natural increase has no parallel, is continually swelled by the 
floods of foreign emigration ; and the time is not far distant, 
"when cultivated fields, and thriving towns, and populous 
cities will fill the great area, which spreads almost from ocean 
to ocean, and from the snow-clad mountains of the north, to 
the burning plains of the south. Connected by all those 
means of communication, and enriched by all those arts 
"which the wonders of modern ingenuity and science have 
produced, and which, even yet, seem scarcely to have passed 
their infancy, the prospect of such a people, enjoying universal 
happiness and prosperity, under the sanction of just and equal 
laws, bound together by ties of their own formation, and 
acknowledging the purifying influences of a divine religion, 
is almost too great to be embraced by the Hmited powers of 
the human mind. 

But the heart of the philanthropic patriot trembles and 
sinks within him when he perceives, that over this sublime 
and magnificent landscape, hangs a dark and portentous 
cloud, which threatens to pour forth its fury, and make the 
whole a dreary and desolate waste. Already the spirit of 
insubordination to law, of reckless ambition, and of total dis- 
regard of all those sanctions by which alone a free people 
can exist, has made frightful and alarming strides over the 
fairest portions of our land. The spirit, which, to avenge 
real or imaginary wrongs, prompted an infuriated mob to 
level with the earth the private edifices of a neighbouring 
city, and to despoil, in a burst of popular phrensy, individual 

3 



( 18 ) 

citizens of their property and their peace, is the same which 
exhibited nearly the whole community of a western town as 
active performers in the awful scenes of deliberate murder* 
That spirit is now running riot through the land, threatening 
to overthrow and destroy, all that we ought to cherish and 
preserve. It is a poison as deadly to our hopes, as that of the 
life-destroying Upas, to human existence. If the law cannot 
vindicate itself, if the pernicious and self-destroying principle 
is to take root among us, that the supposed will of the people, 
manifested, no matter how, is to break down the barriers of 
their own laws, and hfe, liberty, and property are to be held 
by the uncertain and dangerous tenure of popular dictation, 
unregulated and unrestrained by constitutional or legal sanc- 
tions, the slave who bends under the yoke of Russian tyranny, 
or trembles under the scymetar of oriental despotism, is safer, 
happier, and more free, than he who boasts the proud name 
of an American citizen. May a merciful and benignant 
God, chase this accursed plague from our land ! 

This is the moment at which the monster is to be strangled. 
If it be permitted to gather strength with years, the many- 
headed Hydra, can never be destroyed. The pernicious 
stream may now be dammed by a pebble at its source, and 
forced back into the vile slough from which it sprang, but its 
onward course will spread its bitter waters far and wide, 
wasting and uprooting all that is valuable within its destruc- 
tive sweep. 

But how is the progress of this evil to be arrested ? By 
the force of a countervailing principle, too powerful for it to 
contend with. The love of country, strengthened and sustained 
by respect for the law, and obedience to its precepts, can alone 
drive this disorganizing demon from our borders, and bind him 
in his native hell. To those, who mature in years, are mingling 
in the busy scenes of life, and are not prepared to sacrifice 
to sordid ambition, and self-aggrandizement, all that is sacred 
and holy, a word of admonition would be both superfluous 



( 19 ) 

and presumptuous. To depict the evil as it is, to point out its 
frightful tendencies, and to enforce the duty of destroying it 
in the cradle, would be to impute to those to whom such pre- 
cepts are addressed, absolute folly, or absolute depravity. I fully 
adopt the sentiment of a distinguished German writer, " that 
of all men, they are guilty of the greatest crime, who would 
make use of the natural power of our people, for the purposes 
of destruction and convulsion." And to him, who, forgetful 
of manly independence, and patriotic duty, would seek ad- 
vancement by such vile means, I would apply the lines of the 
Roman satyrist : 

" Ille igitur nunquam direxit brachia contra 
Torrentem ; nee civis erat qui libera posset 
Verba animi proferre, et vitam impendere vero." — Juv. 

But to the inexperienced minds of youth, filled with gene- 
rous enthusiasm, and soon to be called, buoyant with hope^ 
into the field of active duty, I may be permitted to point out 
some of the dangers they are to encounter, and the manner 
in which they are to be met and overcome. Those who are 
now passing from scholastic duties to prepare for the pursuits 
of manly exertion, imbued with the lessons of Grecian and 
Roman virtue, and with all that elevation of mind which libe- 
ral studies ever impart, can scarcely receive the truth, that 
this fair country, on which the Almighty has showered his 
choicest bounties, is threatened with distraction, perhaps 
with destruction, from the abuse of the highest blessing he 
has permitted us to enjoy. The frightful scenes of lawless 
riot, of outrage and of murder, with which infuriated and 
unreasoning mobs have disgraced so many portions of our 
country, are less dangerous to our existence as a free people, 
than the startling and blasting doctrines, which are sometimes 
attempted to be engrafted on our institutions. The disgusting 
rankness of the one, carries with it, in some degree, its own 
antidote ; while the subtle poison of the other, disguised under 
a flattering unction, works its way into the very vitals of our 



( 20 ) 

national existence. To say that the people, whose sovereign 
power no one can dispute, and whose voice, legitimately pro- 
nounced, all are bound to obey, may violate all order, break 
through all rule, resume all grants, " wrest the law from its 
authority, and bid their will avouch it," is to strike at the 
very root of civil society, and to open a horrid scene of an- 
archy, injustice, and outrage. Nor is the principle much 
less alarming which asserts, that the acts of an existing legis- 
lature, vesting rights in individuals or corporate bodies, may 
be annulled at pleasure by their successors. It is at variance 
at once, with the dictates of natural justice, and the solemn 
provisions of the Federal Constitution, which forbid the in- 
vasion of contracts, entered into under the sanction of exist- 
ing laws. As well might the heir of him who has parted 
with an estate, forcibly reclaim it, upon a mere allegation, 
with or without foundation, that the price was inadequate, or 
the conveyance obtained by fraud, and passing by the regu- 
larly established tribunals for the determination of such con- 
troversies, constitute himself the absolute and final judge of 
the very question he has raised. The principle shocks our 
natural sense of justice, and to state it, is to pronounce its 
condemnation. And to attempt to sustain an act of high- 
handed and flagrant injustice, by the argument, that the pre- 
cedent has been already set ; that former legislatures have 
passed the limits of natural justice, and overleaped the bar- 
riers of the constitution, is to justify wrong by wrong, and 
to make one error or crime, the fruitful mother of a hideous 
brood. Even necessity, the tyrant's plea, cannot be invoked 
in support of a doctrine which would shake society to its 
centre. The same wise instrument which conferred on the 
legislative department of our government, all the faculties 
necessary to enable it to minister to the well-being of the 
state, provided another and co-ordinate branch, clothed with 
ample power to avert the consequences of fraudulent legisla- 
tion. The separation of the different arms of government, 
and the formation of balances and checks to regulate and 



( 21 ) 

control the undue action of the several parts of the machine, 
was not the result of chance, or of hasty and inconsiderate 
councils. They were the fruit of the deep reflection, the 
anxious thought, the patient vigils, and the profound research 
of men, whose hearts were at least as pure, whose heads 
were at least as clear, and whose patriotism was at least as 
disinterested, as any these latter days can boast. They fore- 
saw the destructive train of evils, which must issue from an 
union of all the powers of the state in one body, and endea- 
voured sedulously to guard against a principle so destructive 
to good government. Instead, therefore, of intrusting to the 
legislature the power of determining the character and validity 
of their own laws, they confided that high function to the 
judiciary, as a department, enlightened, impartial, and inde- 
pendent, and less likely to be controlled by those personal or 
party influences which sometimes find their way into the 
halls of legislation. It is true, the system thus framed, is not 
incapable of change ; and that change may, if the principles 
of sound and good government can be so far forgotten or 
disregarded, annihilate all distinction in the diflferent branches 
of the body politic, and centre all power in a single assembly. 
But the effect of such an unnatural and dangerous union, 
would not be to abrogate any right duly vested under the 
pre-existing form. The instrument which still forms the 
basis on which the fabric of our state government rests, but 
which is soon to be swept away, declares the undeniable 
truth, that " all power is inherent in the people, and all free 
governments are founded on their authority, and instituted 
for their peace, safety, and happiness ;" and that " for the 
advancement of these ends, they have at all times an unalien- 
able and indefeisible right to alter, reform or abolish their 
government, in such manner as they shall think proper." 
But those who suppose that in the exercise of this acknow- 
ledged power, the most sacred rights, which have been 
vested under the faith of a legitimate government, are to be 
swallowed up in the vortex into which our civil and political 



( 22 ) 

institutions are to be thrown, should remember that there is a 
higher power, not only in the force of those immutable prin- 
ciples of truth and justice, leges legum, written by the Al- 
mighty in the hearts of his inteUigent creatures, which for- 
bids the outrage, but in the positive prohibition of constitu- 
tional enactments, whose sacred obligations, all are bound to 
acknowledge. When the Constitution of the United States 
declared, that " no state shall pass any law, impairing the 
obligation of contracts," the restriction was necessarily ex- 
tended to all such enactments, whether they emanated from 
legislatures then in being, from conventions of the people, or 
from legislative assemblies to be created by such conventions. 
The power of remodelling the governments of the individual 
states, was preserved to their citizens, subject to the limits 
prescribed by the paramount authority of the Constitution of 
the United States, beyond which they cannot pass. The 
states surrendered to the Federal government those rights 
and those powers which are enumerated in the constitution, 
and are incapable of recalling them while they continue 
members of the confederacy. How far a state may withdraw 
itself from the compact, and become absolutely independ- 
ent, it is unnecessary to pronounce ; but those who contend 
for the power to rescind a contract, by the supposed omnipo- 
tence of a convention, must go the full length of saying, that 
when a state thus resolves itself into its original elements, it 
ceases to be a state, and its conventional acts, are not the 
laws of one of these United States. The reasoning which 
supports a doctrine such as this, would justify the substitu- 
tion of an absolute monarchy, for the republican form of 
government which is guarantied by the constitution to every 
state in the union. 

If the spirit which breathes such doctrines should unhap- 
pily find its way into a convention called for the correction 
of existing abuses, the angel of truth and justice must fly 
shuddering from its halls, and may find a more congenial 
atmosphere, in the councils of Pandemonium. All right will 



( 23 ) 

be confounded ; all order lost ; all justice spurned ; and " chaos 
will conme again." 

" Touch that string, 
And hark, what discord follows ! each thing meets 
In mere oppugnancy. The bounded waters 
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, 
And make a sop of all this solid globe; | 

Strength, should be lord of imbecility, 
And the rude son, should strike his father dead : 
Force, should be right ; or rather right and wrong, 
(Between whose endless jar justice resides) 
Should lose their names, and so should justice too. 
Then, every thing includes itself in power; 
Power into will, will into appetite ; 
And appetite, an universal wol£ 
So, doubly seconded with will and power, 
Must make perforce an universal prey. 
And last, eat up himself." — Troil and Cressid. 

To suppose, however, that the people of this happy coun- 
try are prepared to tumble from its seat, the beautiful fabric 
of a just and well-regulated government of laws, and bury 
under its ruins the most sacred rights of civil society; to 
make liberty her own destroyer, and to rush into a state of 
savage anarchy, would infer a calumny not justified by any 
teachings of experience. Their solid virtues, their stern in- 
tegrity, their clear understanding, their native sense of right, 
would make them shrink with horror from scenes so appal- 
ling, and form a phalanx round their cherished institutions, 
which neither the mad folly of mistaken enthusiasts, nor the 
selfish schemes of designing demagogues, could penetrate or 
shake. 

But, Hke all other precious gifts, the rich jewel of national 
liberty, directed and regulated by fair and equal laws, can 
only be preserved by the untiring and anxious watchfulness 
of those to whose keeping it is confided. Among the depo- 
sitories of this great trust, the Graduates of La Fayette Col- 
lege, ere long will take their stand. Within those walls 
they are now about to leave, crowned with collegiate hon- 



( 24 ) 

ors, they have learned the lessons of hardy industry, sucked 
the honey of classic Hterature, imbibed the streams of useful 
science, received and cherished the sacred precepts of a pure 
and holy religion ; and thus prepared, they enter on the stage 
of life with all the requisites for usefulness, happiness, and 
virtue. And if they deem the cause of learning and religion 
at all essential to the happiness and well-being of their spe- 
cies, they will rally round the constitution of their country as 
the only power by which they can be preserved ; and cling 
to the horns of their political altar with the devotion of mar- 
tyrs. That constitution, framed by a concentration of wis- 
dom, virtue, and patriotism, which has challenged the admi- 
ration of the world, and has no parallel in the world's history, 
has been built upon the broad, and deep, and solid founda- 
tions of the indefeisible rights of the human race. It has 
provided every thing for the preservation and enjoyment of 
those rights, which enlightened intellect -and exalted virtue 
could suggest or imagine ; and if, in the imperfection of all 
human productions, there be defects, which time and experi- 
ence only can make know^n, it has within it a power of self- 
correction, by which those defects may be effectually cured, 
without striking at the vital principle of its existence. To the 
youth, then, of our country, who are soon to be its guardians 
or destroyers, I would say, study its wise and salutary 
provisions, " nocturna versate manUf versate diurnaf^ cherish 
its exalted principles, support and obey its hallowed precepts, 
and look forward with confidence, under the protection of an 
approving Deity, to the happy reign of law, of virtue, and of 
religion. But, let the wild torrent of unrestrained popular vio- 
lence break in upon its sanctuary, or the insidious poison of 
pernicious principles infect its blood, and be prepared to 
mourn over the ruin of every thing good and holy ; and to 
exclaim, 

" Libertas ultima mundi, 
Quo steterit ferienda loco." — Lucan. 



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